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Threats appear closer than they actually are, finds study

An Edmonton youngster meeting Santa for the first time. A new study finds that when we consider someone a threat, we perceive them as being 18 per cent closer than they actually are.
Photo: Postmedia News/Supplied

If your toddler screams in terror at the mere sight of Santa – forget being placed in his lap – there’s good reason.

A new study in the journal Psychological Science finds that when someone is considered a threat, that person is perceived as being much closer than they actually are. Researchers contend that it’s this visual dupe that helps activate the fight-or-flight response, giving us a head start on protecting ourselves from harm.

“It’s tricking us into seeing the world in a different way – one that ultimately helps us meet our survival goals,” says lead author Emily Balcetis, assistant professor of psychology at New York University.

Teaming up with NYU colleague Shana Cole and Cornell University’s David Dunning, Balcetis sought to discover two things: whether our perception of something changes based on the danger it presumably poses, and whether such an effect would apply to anything that incites a strong, negative response or just something threatening.

As such, the researchers compared reactions of both threat and disgust – and their respective effects on vision – in two experiments.

In the first, 101 college students were recruited using a cover story unrelated to the study’s true intent. The participants stood 366.24 cm away from a live tarantula that was placed on a table, then reported the extent to which they felt threat or disgust (or neither). They also gave estimates on how far away they perceived the spider to be.

A second experiment involved 48 college students – this time, all females – under the pretence of a study on impressions.

The women were introduced to a male stranger (secretly in on the experiment) and asked to watch one of three videos: a ‘threat condition’ in which the stranger discussed his love of guns and feelings of pent-up aggression; a ‘disgust’ condition in which he talked about having urinated and spit in customers’ food while working at a restaurant; and a ‘control’ condition in which he neutrally discussed his college classes.

The experiment concluded after participants rated their levels of threat or disgust, as well as the estimated distance between themselves and the male student (who had been seated 335.28 cm away from them).

The results of both studies were astonishingly similar.

“Participants who were more scared than grossed-out perceived the spider to be 18 per cent closer than participants who were more grossed-out than scared… (And) when participants were in a small room with another person they found threatening and scary, they perceived that person to be 18 per cent closer than if they considered him to be repulsive and gross,” says Balcetis.

“To put it another way, the person appeared to be sitting within the average person’s arm span when he seemed threatening but significantly out of arm’s reach when he seemed disgusting.”

Though Balcetis can’t say for certain why this occurs, she says it could be an adaptive trait developed over time for self-preservation. That is, theoretically, seeing a threatening object or person as closer is likely to trigger a faster response.

“Emotions play a really significant role in our lives,” says Balcetis. “They can affect how we see facial expressions on other people, they can affect how we act toward other people, and now it looks like emotions can also affect how we literally see the world around us – which we argue has consequences for how we act.”

So if your reflection is terrifying early in the morning, try leaving a Post-It in the bathroom: ‘Objects in mirror aren’t as close as they appear.’

Misty Harris is a nationally recognized journalist known for her stories on social science, consumer trends, demographics, academic studies, and marketing. For more than a decade, her articles have been... read more featured on the front pages of Canada’s top newspapers, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times-Colonist, Montreal Gazette, The Province, The Leader-Post, The Star-Phoenix, The Windsor Star, and Ottawa Citizen, in addition to such online news hubs as Canada.com.
Harris has been honoured by the Society for Features Journalism; appeared as a pop culture commentator on CTV, Global News and BBC World Service; reported on fashion, health and lifestyle issues for Flare magazine; and spoken as a guest lecturer at universities in Canada and the U.S.
She is a collector of hot sauces and disappointments.View author's profile